Claire O'Brien

Visiting Fellow, January - March 2011

Claire Methven O'Brien is a human rights practitioner and scholar with particular expertise in the areas of business and human rights and comparative approaches to regulating and implementing human rights.

Claire has been an Adviser at the Human Rights and Business Department of the Danish Institute for Human Rights since 2008. Claire has also been the Coordinator of the Working Group on Business and Human Rights of the International Coordinating Committee (ICC) of National Human Rights Institutions (NHRIs) since its establishment in 2009, with the aim of further strengthening the contribution of national human rights institutions worldwide to promoting greater effectiveness of human rights and accountability in the sphere of corporate activities.

Drawing perspectives from legal sociology, political economy, and EU governance and constitutional studies, Claire's doctoral thesis, "Human Rights and Transnational Corporations: For A Multilevel Governance Approach", identifies key challenges for effective implementation of human rights within trans-nationally integrated economic and social systems. During her Visiting Fellowship, Claire's research will focus on recent developments in business and human rights, and cosmopolitanism, in preparation for publication of her doctoral thesis for publication, later in 2011, by Hart Publishing.

Claire's previously published research has focused on human rights implementation at national level, with a particular focus on the UK Human Rights Act and national institutions for human rights promotion and protection, and at international level, via the UN human rights system. As a consultant, Claire has worked for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and a range of company and public actors.

Claire holds a BA in Philosophy from Queens' College, Cambridge University, a Diploma in Law from the City University, London, an LLM in Public Law from LSE, a PhD in Law from the European University Institute in Florence, and has been called to the London Bar.

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